


a short history of egg-on-rice

by pearthery



Category: Gintama
Genre: Egg-On-Rice, Eggs, Gen, Pre-Shouka Sonjuku, Yorozuya Family, another installment of shoyo & gin wandering the world but this time they have dinner, family time!!!, rice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:00:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27174874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pearthery/pseuds/pearthery
Summary: A bowl of egg-on-rice is something that can actually be so personal.Gintoki and family meals.
Relationships: Kagura & Sakata Gintoki & Shimura Shinpachi, Sakata Gintoki & Yoshida Shouyou
Comments: 12
Kudos: 69





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> once upon a time i read an article about egg-on-rice and then i wrote a fic about it!!!!
> 
> okay i'm starting to realise that, i, have a lot of thoughts about eggs.

Shoyo moved slowly in the dim light, his face shadowed. There were two chipped bowls in his lax hands with faded patterns decorating the inside curves. As Shoyo filled them up with rice, the paintings disappeared, like mountain plants under snowfall. Soft, puffed white shapes fell neatly atop each other and piled into modest peaks. Shoyo seemed very pleased with himself, because he smiled and made a triumphant hum.

The old ceramic clinked together as he settled it on the dusty ground, a thin and hollow sound that echoed in the silent woods. Gintoki tore his eyes from the food towards the door. Nothing entered. Nothing rustled in the leaves beyond. He waited still. 

“It’s alright,” Shoyo laughed. “This is a wild place. I am sure no one will bother us here.” He laid a hand on his bent knee and tilted his head. “Come and sit?” 

Gintoki furrowed his brow. 

“You must be hungry.”

This was not untruthful. Hunger was all-encompassing and persistent, and the ache of it was as heavy and squalling like the first time he had starved, corroding the lining of his stomach. Gintoki was sick of hunger, so he went to sit. 

“Would you like a pair of chopsticks?” asked Shoyo happily. 

Gintoki gave him a funny look and shook his head. He didn’t know how to use chopsticks. Neither did he know what Shoyo wanted them to eat. There were two bowls of fluffy white rice on the rotting pinewood floor, and two large, mottled eggs. There were some small, folded paper packages, a tiny bottle of dark liquid, and then a wide, worn parchment with faded inky scrawl. 

“That's alright," said Shoyo, exuding an aura of dense delight. "Perhaps you won't need them. The seller I was speaking to yesterday was telling me about this new recipe that is becoming quite popular! These are the eggs of a domesticated fowl,” he chirped, pointing to the large eggs, “which has been discovered to remain inert without fertilisation from a male, and in that manner, believed to be ethically consumable. When the raw contents are stirred vigorously into rice, it takes on the consistency of porridge!” 

Shoyo lifted the little bottle. “This is a sample of a soy sauce that is being developed to enhance the flavour of this new dish.” He flourished the packet. “And these are seaweed flakes, and a portion of sea salt.”

Here, he hesitated. “I have limited culinary experience, Gintoki, but I do hope this meal will be alright. Please eat your fill. I wish for you to never hunger again.” 

After this, Shoyo avoided his gaze. Reading off the parchment, he busied himself with cracking the first eggshell, so precisely that the two split halves could have been fit together seamlessly, almost as if they had never been fractured apart. Then he parted the rice carefully to form a faint depression and laid the egg within it.

The second egg had a deep orange yolk, almost red, almost identical to the colour of the horizon. Shoyo paused for a moment, before he set that one’s brown shell to the side as well. Strangely, Shoyo crushed them, his fingers breaking the thin barrier down into fragments that he scattered in the soil outside, at the base of a patch of weeds. 

Gintoki watched him pick up the chopsticks with sticky fingers, tacky with albumin. Solemnly, Shoyo began to stir the egg yolk into the rice. After a while, it began to turn pale gold, became thick and creamy. Shoyo opened the packages and sprinkled on a series of minuscule dark flakes, smelling of the ocean, and grainy crystals of salt that he doused liberally with the soy sauce until the small bottle was empty, and then he picked up the bowls and set one before Gintoki. 

Gintoki peered up at him through half-lidded eyes. He dipped a finger into the bowl and licked the buttery rice grains into his mouth. 

“Thanks,” he said in his hardly-used voice, though it was warming from the tentative conversations with Shoyo, and from the smooth, warm texture of the food. Shoyo smiled back, and if Gintoki had had the words back then, he would have called it shy. For now he called it gentle and kept eating.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> do you notice how they both do weird things that the other does not blink at? this is a subtle reference to the fact that they are both weirdos that don't know how people work but also they care each other <3


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i!!! couldn't stop thinking about egg-on-rice!!! so!!! this!!! also!! if you don't have any pet food for your cat or dog, scrambled eggs (without salt) works as a perfectly fine alternative!!!

There were four eggs left in the kitchen. Three in the carton they came in from the store, and one hidden behind the pile of JUMP magazines haphazardly stacked on the low table, probably where Kagura had left it when she decided to eat one less egg for lunch yesterday, instead of her usual three. Gintoki picked the egg up, the one that had been left out overnight in the sticky, humid weather, and squinted at it. He walked over to the inugami sprawled against the wall. 

"Oi, Sadaharu." A white, fluffy head shook awake reluctantly and Gintoki lifted his arm, holding the egg out. "Tell me if this smells." 

Sadaharu scrunched his nose up and whined, but he leaned up anyway. A quick sniff. His ears twitched. Then he tucked his head back down onto his paws and his tail thumped a steady rhythm against the wooden floorboards.

"Good news, then," said Gintoki, "that's one less rotten egg in this household. But better safe than sorry. How do you feel about scrambled egg, Sadaharu? It'll be like a delicious, gourmet meal, yeah? Inugami probably don't get food poisoning, so I think you'll be fine." 

Sadaharu made a soft, noncommital noise. 

" _Wow! That sounds super amazing Gin-san! I love your cooking! I can't believe you're not a world-famous, uber-rich and admired celebrity che—"_

Kagura's closet door slid open.

"Gin-chaaann," she yawned. "Why're you makin' so much noise in the mornin'? Don' you know that young girls need their beauty sleep?"

She rubbed her eyes and dragged herself to the living room, falling heavily onto the tattered blue couch, a very unsteady, dead weight. Sadaharu's tail wagged and he pulled himself up to pad over to her, resting his chin on the table and barking as Kagura buried her arms in his mass of white fur. 

"What young girl?" said Gintoki, trying to hide the fond grin forming at the corners of his mouth. "I only see a black hole of a damn brat. What kind of monster eats five bowls of rice and leaves nothing for the person who takes care of them, huh?"

Kagura's voice was muffled from where she'd shoved her face into the fuzzy cloud of Sadaharu's cheek, but she seemed less groggy already, and no more full of shame than she had woken up with. It was a real shame. You couldn't get any pity in this household. 

"It's okay Gin-chan," she said. "You can just make more and we'll eat egg-on-rice again." 

She poked her head up and smiled at him, even blushing at the thought of eating a meal she'd already eaten a thousand times before. 

"What's with that look? You really can't get enough of it? Even though we ate egg-on-rice yesterday?"

"So?"

"So?! That's how you get vitamin deficiencies! They're very serious, and it takes a lot of money to recover from the effects. We don't have a lot of money at all, since I haven't won at pachinko lately, so we'll be real sorry if something goes wrong! It'll be a really bad waste of money!"

Kagura pouted. "We'll be sorry if we don't eat egg-on-rice today, I think, Gin-chan. We'll feel really guilty from denying ourselves the best food in the world, and because you don't want anything to go with our rice, it'll be gross and bland, and we won't be hungry, so we won't eat it, so it'll spoil and we'll have to throw it out, you know, and that's gonna waste more money!"

Peering down at Kagura's inflamed and passionate stare, Gintoki huffed a laugh. "Where was all this energy when you were saying good morning to me, hah?"

"As if I'd say good morning to a disgusting old man like you," she retorted, shuffling on the couch to find the remote. She wiggled past Sadaharu's big head whining on the middle cushion and found it wedged beneath a pile of empty sukonbu boxes. "When's Shinpachi coming over?"

"Hm?" Gintoki said on his meandering way to the kitchen. "Ah, Pattsuan said he'll drop by after doing some errands."

"Oh, so he's buying Otsuu-chan merch again. What a creepy otaku." 

They fell silent after that, but the ambient noise of the apartment settled across their shoulders like a comforting blanket, calm and subtle and soothing. Gintoki could hear the hum of the TV, some Saturday morning program, and Kagura's engrossed comments as she got herself enthusiastically invested in whatever odd commercials popped up on the screen during the ad breaks. There were cold grey clouds sweeping the sky outside, but inside, the air was tinged with a mellow buzz.

Pattering around the kitchen counters, Gintoki started preparing breakfast. He eased a few bowls from their awkward positions in the cupboards and made a note that perhaps Kagura's share of the chores could be re-arranged so as to not involve putting away the dishes. He pulled a few packets of cheap sushi restaurant wasabi out of the toaster, and amended the note to include Kagura's complete exile from the kitchen. 

A slight breeze darted in as the front door opened, and there came the sound of someone toeing their shoes off at the entrance. Sadaharu's ears perked up and Kagura gave the hallway a cursory glance before turning back to the TV. A pair of feet made their audible way over to the living room, accompanied by a few gentle thuds that really would've made more sense coming from Gintoki, drunk off his rocks, than the Yorozuya's resident straight man.

Seriously, Shinpachi's footsteps sounded heavier than usual, and he was panting. Maybe he'd been out running? Boys his age usually got into body-building and fitness, right? Or maybe not. Gintoki couldn't be too sure. It wasn't like Gintoki knew what normal teenage boys did. 

"Good morning Gin-san! Kagura-chan! Sadaharu!" Shinpachi greeted cheerfully, or as cheerfully as he seemed to be able to muster while wheezing so hard, from behind the large, drooping leaves of a massive potted plant. "Look what I got us!" 

He beamed, white teeth shining and his cheeks flushed from the exertion of carrying, well, it had to have been at least 5 kilograms, and Shinpachi was a pretty weedy kid, though he'd been getting stronger over the past few arcs. Kagura's eyes darted towards the wide green fronds and Gintoki sucked in a breath. 

"Oh-h, you didn't—ah. Ahahahaha. You didn't—you didn't get that from Hedoro-san, did you, Pattsuan? Right?"

Shinpachi paled, even as he stuttered out his response. "Of course not! I—I would never bother Hedoro-san like that, Gin-san, you know that! He's such a good neighbour, I wouldn't want to disturb him, ever! Such a good neighbour! He's very busy, you know, I wouldn't want to interrupt, of course! No! No!"

"Ah, well! Ahaha, that's good, then! All good! Ahaha, so, where did you get that from, then?" 

Shinpachi sighed and set the plant down next to the hallway, crouching carefully so he could brace it on the ground and ease his fingers out from underneath the painted clay. "I just spotted it while I was walking over, and I thought it might be good to have an indoor plant or two to liven up the office!"

Kagura scoffed and rolled over on the couch. "Whaddya mean, Shinpachi? This place is lively enough!"

"Well, they say plants can purify the air, you know, Kagura-chan, and I'm sure a more pleasant workplace environment could benefit both the staff and the clientele! Wouldn't you like to have some nice, fresh things in here instead of—" and here he looked around the room, "—uh, clumps of fur and strawberry milk cartons? It smells really weird in here. And Gin-san, I don't live with you, but Kagura-chan does, so I think it's important for you to remember that happy employees equal good work!" 

"Huh? What staff? What employees?" said Gintoki. "I only see two freeloading brats." 

"Gin-san!" said Shinpachi, with furrowed brows and an exasperated tone. But then he bent his head and smiled, with a pleased little grin, like Gintoki had vowed his neverending devotion or something. What a weird kid. "Actually, I'm pretty sure you're the freeloader here." 

"Oi, what're you doing talking to your boss like that, huh? Sit down and keep your mouth shut, Pattsuan!"

"Yeah Shinpachi," Kagura jeered, gleefully joining in. "You better shut up and let Mother make egg-on-rice! I'm really hungry!" 

Stepping over Sadaharu's tail and sitting politely on the couch, like the polite kid he was, Shinpachi made a face. "Again? But we ate that yesterday, Kagura-chan!"

"That's what I said!" came a yell from the kitchen. "With the super limited edition special soy sauce that Granny let us borrow!"

"Otose-san didn't let us borrow it, Gin-san," Shinpachi corrected. "Kagura-chan really liked how it tasted on her rice porridge last week, and since you didn't notice that she took it, it's been in the pantry ever since. Do you want me to help you carry everything?" 

"Nah, it's alright," said Gintoki, trudging into the living room with a tray of rice-bowls and eggs, and an accompanying assortment of toppings. A pair of large, canine eyes watched him eagerly as he set it down on the table and settled on the couch, sandwiched between Shinpachi and the ravenous Yato, reaching desperately out for a bowl. "Also, you guys are really turning into miniature criminals. Did you forget everything I taught you? What troublesome hellions you ended up becoming. Even Zura thought you were a good kid, Shinpachi-kun." 

"Please don't lump me in with Kagura-chan," said Shinpachi, taking a pair of chopsticks from the tray. "She's the one who always gets into trouble. I haven't done anything at all."

In a quick, dynamic motion, Kagura snatched a bowl and two eggs, tugging them close to her chest and hunching over them protectively. "Then what about that time you got caught buying porn mags, huh, Shinpachi? Or that time you were fighting Tosshi in a boxing arena? Or that time you got thrown into jail for doing a Kinniku Buster on the train?"

She ignored Shinpachi's explosively defensive retort, something about being mixed up with MADAO, Kagura noted, and reached over Sadaharu's twisting ears to grab the seaweed flakes, and the super limited edition special soy sauce she'd stolen from Otose's shelf. Sadaharu made large, damp eyes at the food-laden table and whined, and whined some more, for an impossibly long time, or at least however long it took for Gintoki to shuffle back into the kitchen and grab a plate of steaming scrambled eggs to set beside Sadaharu's very full bowl of dog food. 

"Anyway Gin-chan," Kagura continued, cracking an egg over her rice. "Any bad habits we get are just copies of yours, uh-huh."

"That's probably true," Gintoki nodded. "I'm not a very reliable adult, honestly." He picked up his own egg and tapped it on the edge of his bowl, the ceramic clinking. The force made a little indent in the shell, not neat, but it was good enough, so Gintoki dug his fingers and split it messily open, and the yolk slipped out and plopped into place among the white rice, still hot and fragrant. 

Then he gathered the eggshells in his hands and stood up, padding over to the large clay pot Shinpachi had planted next to the wall, right beside the hallway entrance. He crouched before it, looking at the patterns. They were a mix of colours, wrapping around each other in joyous swirls, backlit by a shade of soft, buttery yellow. It didn't quite match the rich, noble green of whatever plant Shinpachi had picked up, but it was nice nonetheless. 

Gintoki pressed his fingers together, smushing the shells into pieces, smaller and smaller until they looked like thin, irregular mosaic tiles, pale brown and freckled, and he sprinkled them into the soil. Two pairs of eyes peered down at him judgementally. 

"This is why we get bad habits, Gin-chan," said Kagura through a mouthful of stirred egg-on-rice. "It's 'cause you keep doing weird things. Are you trying to grow eggs, Gin-chan? You can't grow eggs, Gin-chan. I didn't think you were that stupid." 

"No! I think he's actually doing something, Kagura-chan!" piped Shinpachi, after recovering from his furious embarrassment. "The calcium in egg-shells can be good for soil, and for plants. Is that what you're doing, Gin-san?"

Kagura looked thoughtful. "Huh. Is that true? That's cool." 

The fragments of the shells scattered in the soil gleamed in the overhead light, a little bit like stars in the vast night sky, or like pebbles under running water. His calloused hands looked small against the broad, green leaves. Gintoki thought about the past for a moment. 

"No," he said. "I don't have a clue about that stuff. I was just…. reminded of something." 

"Oh, I see," said Shinpachi. "Well… Gin-san… Can I remind you that we still have to eat breakfast?" And he turned back to the present reality, the grounding fact of life that breakfast was not yet done. 

Gintoki closed his eyes for a second, then re-opened them, standing and turning back to the diorama at the centre of the living room. 

There was Kagura, smiling and sated, though obviously not enough, as she was over halfway through her first bowl and already chirping for seconds. There was Shinpachi, his glasses askew as he desperately, and with a very imminent chance of failure, tried to wrestle Kagura away from his portion. They were yelling, the both of them, young voices piping as they tumbled, like puppies, or well, just the damn brats they were. Sadaharu had finished all his food and laid, now, on the floor, watching them all with his tail beating a low, steady rhythm, eyes half-lidded and content.

The apartment was warm. Gintoki laughed, and he sat down to eat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the short history of egg-on-rice is a little bit longer now!! it's kind of like the end of a "history of this thing" article, or youtube video, where at the end they summarise it with a little note about the present reality, or where history has ended up, and this chapter is kind of like that? a little bit? either way!! finally!! yorozuya fam shenanigans!!!


End file.
